Russia’s Interior Ministry has issued an arrest warrant for former Chelyabinsk region Governor Boris Dubrovsky, the RBC news website reported Thursday, though the charges against him have not been disclosed.
Dubrovsky, 66, led the mineral-rich region in the southern Urals from 2014 until stepping down in March 2019. On the eve of his resignation, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service accused him of awarding favorable road construction contracts worth 2.4 billion rubles ($30 million) to a single company.
In 2019, a prominent lawyer told state media that a criminal investigation had been launched into Dubrovsky’s time in office. The lawyer claimed the former governor was charged with abuse of power and fled to Switzerland.
Dubrovsky dismissed reports of the investigation as “fake news” and denied fleeing the country, saying he visited his daughter in Switzerland “from time to time.”
A metallurgical engineer by training, Dubrovsky previously served as CEO of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), one of Europe’s largest steel producers, from 2011 to 2014.
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